Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will provide an estimate of the number of hours spent (a) responding to and (b) preparing for Westminster Hall Debates by (i) government ministers, (ii) civil servants and (iii) special advisers in her Department for each parliamentary session for which the information is available.

It is not possible to provide an estimate of the time spent preparing ministers to respond to Westminster Hall debates. The amount of Civil Service, Special Adviser and Ministerial time involved varies depending on the policy issues covered and the length of the debate. Debates may also be cross-cutting in nature, requiring input from multiple government departments or their arm’s length bodies.